as of September 11, 2013

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

October 6, 2014 – General Conference

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

First of all, I want to send my condolences and love to the family about the passing of TIto Chuck... especially to Cameron and Tita Jackie. I'll be praying hard for them. I never thought it would happen so soon! I honestly don't know what to say any more than that. I am as shocked as you are. Feelings about Lola's passing comes back to mind. I remember how difficult that time was for all of us. As sad as we were, the gospel of Jesus Christ brought me much comfort, knowing where Lola was going and what would happen afterwards. That same comfort comes back as well at this time. Expect a letter from me to the family next week.

I suppose I should start talking about this past week now. First though, it's awesome that you all went to conference! I'm glad you got to see all the general authorities and hear their voices live. You probably heard Elder Hugo Martinez talk in Spanish. I met him personally a few weeks ago at a zone conference. He told me that I must write my testimony to Laney and Hannah after talking to him for a bit. A really nice guy!

Well, General Conference  was awesome as always! ^_^ Don't ask me who was my favorite, I loved all the talks, haha! I was able to watch it in English this time around in a little tv. It was a lot of fun! Not only conference, but watching it with the other Elders and Sisters in my zone made it a lot better as well. It was an awesome experience! ^_^

The work is progressing in its own way. We've decided to help out the ward before we make a push for a lot of investigators. What we're going to do, with the help and approval of the Bishop of course, is prepare members to share the gospel with friends and associates whenever the occasion permits. This would be a huge help because we'll have more people doing missionary work instead of just us two. We won't be around for every single opportunity to share the gospel, but with more people around, ready to share something, it will be more efficient. We spent the week meeting with the bishop and working closely with him, and now we're starting to put into effect this little strategy. Wish us luck!

Hopefully, the work will progress at this pace. I'll write you all next week with how that is all going. I love you and miss you all! Send my regards to the other family members, please! I'll send pictures and a video next week!

-Elder Froude



Watching General Conference with the Zone Missionaries

September 29, 2014 – New companion, new mission

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

Boy, I've got quite a bit to write about. Well first, I have a new companion now! His name is Elder Tillmond, from Las Vegas. Man, he’s a greenie, fresh from the MTC, but he's pretty ready to be here! He's got a great work ethic and is super excited to work here. He also listens to the Holy Spirit really well, so that's super helpful. His sensitivity to the Spirit has actually helped out a lot here.


Finding people in this area has become really hard recently. Not only that, the people we're teaching has become really flaky. Not the best way to start a mission :P But we fasted on Sunday and Elder Tillmond thought about trying to help the ward become more involved. The ward is cool, but they're pretty complacent when it comes to helping the ward grow. They also rely a little too much on us to grow the ward. What Elder Tillmond and I want to do is to help them realize that the growth of the ward is their responsibility too. So, for the next few weeks, that will be our biggest focus; visiting members and ward leaders and training them a little bit on how their calling can help the work. We're also going to get Bishop to start the Preach My Gospel class started up. This ward has no ward missionaries. We want to teach the ward that we need their help, and with it, the work can advance 10 times faster. Maybe our numbers will be a little lower for a bit, but this will help us in the long run here. I'm just glad I have a companion who is ready and excited to work as I am!

Well, the Family History Fair was this past week and I gotta say, it wasn't as successful as I hope it would be. This is partly what we had planned to focus on helping the ward. The Stake made 4000 invitations for this activity, and divided them among the 6 wards to invite people. Each companionship of missionaries was given at least 200 to invite, and we gave them all out. The rest went to the members. Well, the night of the fair, there were only about 80 or less people there, and most of them were members. My companion and I invited more than 200 people and NONE of them showed up. My new companion and I talked a bit about how we felt about that and we both agreed that there needs to be a change. So, we'll be focused on how we can improve the work ethic of the ward. We're both excited to get started!

Hopefully, we can get some good work done here! If we're able to get the ward to work better with us and if we can have better meetings with the ward about the missionary work by the time I leave this area, I'll be satisfied. It's a personal goal of mine to leave an area better than I found it. I'll write you all again next week! Thank you so much for all your support and love! Miss you all!


-Elder Froude

September 22, 2014 – Transfer week

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,

First of all, Happy Late Birthday Lauren!! I didn't get a chance to write it last week, but last Thursday I kept it in my head to write it today. Wow, I'll already be home for the next one!

Anyway, as tough as this past week has been, there are big pieces of good stuff that made up for it. First, Hermano Jorge Nuñez was baptized and confirmed this weekend! The first baptism I've had in this area! My companion and I didn’t do the actual baptism, but a nephew of Jorge's, who just returned from his mission about 3 months ago baptized him. It was a nice service.  :D  He was already super prepared to be baptized though.  He was what we call a ''Mormón Seco'' or a dry Mormon. He's basically a member, just not baptized yet, hence, dry, lol! We're all really happy for him!

Hermano Jorge Nunez and his family




So this week, we're going to spend a bunch of time at a Family History fair that the stake set up. Our job, of course, is to invite and bring as many people as we can. It's set up a little differently from the Family History youth conference that I did a few years back, but it should be a success! I'll let you know how it all goes next week. We spent a good chunk of this past week inviting people and handing out invitations. Like you said, Dad, it's a numbers game at this point. We handed out something like 200 invitations, if we're lucky, 20 or so people will come and out of those 20, 3 or so might become investigators, and maybe even 1 baptism.

Well, just like that, 1 transfer has passed by! And surprisingly, my companion who just got here this last transfer is already transferring. I'm staying in Ralma to train another missionary! As excited as I am, it's pretty funky that my companion who just got here is already leaving the area. I guess I still have something to do here.

Well, that's my letter for this week. Quite a few changes going on, but maybe it’s for the better! I'm excited to train another missionary. There's a huge group of Americans coming in too, about 24 or so. It may not seem that much, but for here it’s a big group! Until next week! Love you all!


-Elder Froude

The sister missionaries gave me this on my 1 year anniversary.  They were sweet!
My district!